Doncaster RLFC: Thornton aims to pick up pieces after Bulls stampede

Steve Hossack

Gary Thornton will try to pick up the pieces from Sunday’s crushing 72-6 Championship defeat at second-placed Bradford Bulls at tonight’s training session.

Dons’ new boss must address some of the defensive failings which contributed to Bulls’ 14-try stampede, while trying to get his men into the right frame of mind to entertain London Broncos at Castle Park on Sunday.

Thornton had hoped to build on the promising performance he witnessed at Dewsbury and was relatively happy to be just 12 points adrift at the break after playing into the blustery wind.

“I thought that there were a few positives in the first half and I thought at 18-6 we’d given ourselves a bit of a chance even though we’d allowed Bradford to play too quickly,” he said.

“We’d spoken about trying to control their middle unit but they are handful and we just couldn’t match them, particularly in the second half.

“I was really disappointed with our second half performance.

“It didn’t help that we only had five sets with the ball but we gave them too many soft tries.

“They’ve run up other big scores so you have to put it into perspective but tackling is one of the basics of the game.

“I’ve certainly learned something about the players.”

Thornton will check on the fitness of Pasquale Dunn and James Cunningham.

He will take in Broncos’ re-arranged game at Batley tomorrow night when he will be hoping that the visitors, who became the first side to beat Leigh in 2015 at the weekend, will do the Dons a favour by beating their fellow relegation candidates.